CMD at 50: From Chris Ogunbanjo to Danharbi Chinoko

By December 4, 2023, legendary corporate lawyer and philanthropist, Chief Chris Ogunbanjo will be 100 years. Fortuitously, the Centre for Management Development, the national hub for manpower development for both private and public sectors, which he shepherded at birth as its pioneer Director General, is also golden this year. That means both share a 50-year association. But unlike the evidently-progressing life of the pioneer DG, the Council’s trajectory has been anything, but smooth. In fact, the Council was literally dead at a point. It became “job for the boys” and all manner of characters were sent there to lead it. This isn’t ancient history. The rot continued till early 2018. In 2017, a Senate delegation; Committee on National Planning led by Rabiu Kwankwaso, was befuddled that the Centre’s leadership under then-DG Dr. Kabir Kabo Usman could be so irresponsible not to replace ordinary light bulbs in its most significant Lagos office and former headquarters, despite the billions of Naira received as allocation for eight years.

Then an acting DG, Bitrus Danharbi Chinoko came on board and gradually the Centre was resurrected and in just a term of office, ending next year, the agency, is beginning to look like the Ogunbanjo “golden” era, again.

Is it divine design that Ogunbanjo will be celebrating being a Centenarian and the baby he midwifed, is 50, in the hand of a successor, who seems to possess the same excellence DNA like the legendary administrator? Maybe, but good things don’t just happen to organizations because someone wished them. Achieving excellence in leadership especially in public office, is a deliberate choice, by the appointor to the office and the appointee. When Murtala/Obasanjo military regime; the conceiver of the idea, went for Ogunbanjo, the administration clearly and deliberately sought a competent hand to rock the cradle. The result was a great take-off for the Centre, serving as the powerhouse for a Nigeria that just came out of a calamitous civil war, which whacked its public service. If the scars of the civil war on the public service landscape weren’t as disruptive as should be, the Centre for Management Development, would take a chunk of the praise. It is almost like Nigeria owing its healing, in part, to Ogunbanjo and his team.

It is the same way Danharbi and his team should earn some accolades, for the revival being variously acknowledged in human capacity-building in private and public sectors since the new laws, rolled out by then-President Muhammadu Buhari, sharpened the legal teeth of the Centre. In the years in-between the Chris Ogunbanjo functioning era and Chinoko’s golden moment, the Centre has witnessed the good, the fair, the bad and the gross. The dolorous moment, was the eight years, before the revival. And these, were appointees of some supervising Ministers of National Planning, who usually advise Presidents on such appointments! Those ministers, with undesirables, as DGs of the Centre, possibly sent their worst sidekicks to the Centre, because they likely saw the national asset, as a mere reward system, for political and primordial loyalty. Unfortunately, politics will always be at the heart of appointing the headship of this all-important national agency, because an average Minister of National Planning, who will recommend the Centre’s DG, whenever there is vacancy, is likely a politician.

The new one, Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, with the revised designation of Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, is a career politician who is an ex-this, ex-that, traversing Kebbi government house and the senate. He has been in power corridor since the inglorious Sani Abacha years and if he isn’t a politician with “boys”, I don’t know who is. That should be scary. The tendency, considering his many controversies, is to conclude all the agencies under his Ministry, including the back-to-life Centre, would become playgrounds for the numerous “boys” he must be indebted to in the course of politicking. But his kind had pleasantly surprised in the past, putting naysayers in a spin. I’m a doubter too. Hopefully, with his undeniable global exposure and two Master’s Degrees in Economics and International Affairs, there would be enough patriotism mix, to be different.

The process of appointing Directors-General for the Centre, has been at the heart of its rise, fall and rise trajectory. Considering the mess the last outsider to head the agency, made of it, the argument has strongly been in favour of permanently settling for succession-by-seniority, which would make ascension to the DG office, an internal affair of the Centre. The incumbent, who is receiving wide applause everywhere, is a product of freeing up the system, to throw up its leadership.

But will the Council always be lucky to have a competent most senior, at all times? What if the most senior is a mere prodigal, as already witnessed elsewhere? What if there are manifestly more competent Directors, junior to the most senior? Would it be fair shifting the goalpost then, because the most-prized strike is wasteful with golden opportunities? That is why promotion to director level should be deliberate in public service. There are directors in public service today who nobody would want as messengers in private firms. They are just grossly unbearable.

Before the Centre began its descent with the advent of civil rule, those appointed from outside of the system, dominated. And records showed that some sparkled. Though the office is a political appointment, sentiment among stakeholders, strongly favours growing into it, from within, while the Board, always filled with loyalists of the government of the day, plays the supervisory role. Accountability argument should favour this arrangement, instead of an outsider heading the Centre and the supervising Board, also filled with outsiders. Similar arrangement in recent past, proved costly. Evidently, commitment was lacking, hence ordinary light bulbs would become an issue.

For someone who has spent his entire adult life working for the Centre, the level of attachment, commitment and responsibility, would be different. The sense of “our Centre” would drive more patriotism from an insider. Maybe that is why Chinoko turned out differently from his immediate predecessor, despite holding the office as a political appointee. His first term ends April next year. It would be the prerogative of his supervising minister, to recommend him for a second and final term, while the absolute pleasure of re-appointment, lies with the President.

This is the least of the worries about the future of the Centre, though one would expect a winning team to remain in place. Whether or not, the incumbent gets the President’s nod to continue after 2024 April, one issue that government can’t run from, to keep the Centre running, is keeping politics out of a political appointment. You ask how is that possible and the simple answer is ensuring that capable hands, particularly from within the system, are appointed at all times, to run it. The past practice of picking Minister’s “boys”, to go supervise the national treasure, must stop, especially now that a new government is in place and those who believe their efforts in installing it, must be rewarded with appointments of all kinds, including where they would be a complete anathema, would be on rampage.

For an administration preaching transformation, national institutions like CMD, would be crucial to developing manpower that would change the current narrative.

May God grant the President the wisdom to think the next 50 years of the Centre, and the unborn generations that it would serve if the Lord tarries.

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